By: Tim Kays
On the evening of March 8, Pioneer Village Council took two big steps toward kicking off their summer village construction projects.
The first of these topics addressed had to do with the upcoming resurfacing of State Street, and the associated removal of trees
Councilor Connie Salisbury spoke about 18-year old 4-H member Kaylee McCaskey, saying, “…she would like to submit some information about the trees that possibly are going to be planted.”
She’s been doing research on the effect of the fumes from the automobiles and the salt. She’s going to send me the information by email and then I will just send that to all of you. She’s 18 years old, and she wants to really be involved in this.”
“She’s going to be the only one around when the trees are full grown, so we should let the 18 year old make the decision,” said Mayor Edward Kidston. “Seriously though, we’ve got plenty of time to figure out what we’re going to replant.”
“The discussion for tonight is, are we going to remove trees along State Street on both sides to make way for the new project. I haven’t talked to all individually, but I heard back a report from the Tree Committee, and it’s our intention to replant trees when the project is completed.”
“We’ve got time to decide what kind of trees we want to go back, and we certainly want them to not only look good, but to grow good and be strong.”
The plan is for the removal of 37 trees in advance of the State Street construction project, mostly in the terraces from Industrial Drive, south to the 600 block of South State Street.
“There’s a few good ones,” Mayor Kidston said, “…and you know what has brought this to ahead right now is that we need to begin taking these trees down, preparing for our State Street construction which will start sometime after the July-August time period.”
“We’ll probably bid it out in that time span. The construction will start up this fall or late summer, and will continue through the winter. Hopefully we get the work completed everything graded off, then the state will come in and do their asphalt next spring or early summer, and we’ll have a nice new, beautiful street right down through Pioneer.”
“This also includes some storm water improvements. That includes Mulberry Street and one block of Lincoln Street, and also includes some storm water improvements one block east of State on Dearborn.”
“But the subject matter for tonight is removing the trees, so that we can put the curbs in properly, and the sidewalks in properly. Then when the project’s all completed, we’ll come back in with 50, 60, 70 trees, whatever it takes…and we’ll repopulate State Street.”
“That’s the game plan. (Village Administrator) Al (Fiser) made mention that there’s a few trees that he thinks that we could relocate and replant down in the park, but the motion that I’m looking for…do we want to go forward with these trees. If that’s the case, then we’ll begin that process in the not too distant future.”
Council agreed to the proposal without dissent.
Council then addressed the upcoming street repaving project in the village, and the associated assessments.
Mayor Kidston noted that action needed to be taken soon because the Ohio Turnpike has a major project going on later this year, “…and Gerken (Construction Company), who is probably going to bid on this…because they own the asphalt plant, told us that if we’re going to do any of this this year, then we need to get going on it.”
The roads targeted in the proposed project are all at least 20 years along since their last repaving. The Mayor broke down the history of the repaving assessment system in the village.
“For those of you were not here 20 years ago,” he began, “…I’ll make kind of a recap of what Council’s thought was back then. When we go in and we do a total rebuild with new storm, new water, new curbs, new asphalt, new sidewalk…those are major million-dollar projects, and we never do those unless we’re successful in getting substantial grants to help pay for that type of improvement.”
“When we first started, I think Baubice Street was the first street we did. We set a rate of $15.50 per foot for a total restructure. The Council back then was thinking eventually these roads are going to be 20 years old, and they’re going to need repaved.”
“They don’t need new curbing. They don’t need new water lines; they don’t need new sewer. They don’t need the major construction, but the paving is 20 years old, as it is on these roads that were presenting tonight.”
“The thought process of that point many decades ago was that that cost would be borne by the property owner, after the town had gone in and put in the infrastructure.”
“Well, things change, and the only reason I’m going through this whole detail with you is that just like the $15.50 that we established many moons ago, so that it’s fair to all the residents, we follow that process all the way through and still use that number today, even though that number is probably inaccurate today.”
“Now we’re getting ready to resurface, and we need to set a rate that we can maintain, because next year there will be roads that are 20 years old, and the following year, and the following year.”
“The intent is to keep all of our roads in great shape, and when they get to be 20 years old, they’ll be resurfaced. So, Alan (Fiser) and I kind of crunched the numbers on what’s fair for the property owner, what’s fair to the village.”
“The village is in outstanding financial shape, and I don’t believe we need to charge the homeowner for the entire resurfacing.”
“I think we can, as a village, share that cost, and if we decide to do that tonight and we just have to understand as we go forward in time, we’re going to always share in that cost.”
“So we came up with a $9.00 per foot rate, which we feel is fair to the homeowner, and the cost to the village is about that same amount. It’s a little different on different streets, mainly because the street is wider.”
The streets under consideration for inclusion in the project are primarily in the Clearfork Subdivision, including Ash Drive, West Church Street, South Elm Street, West First Street, and East and West Lynn Streets, all the way down to the Wyandotte bridge.
“I looked at all the numbers,” the Mayor said, “…and I don’t think any property owner gets hurt really bad. If they want to, they can put this on their taxes and pay for it over 20 years.”
“If they want to pay for it upfront, they can do that, but the assessments are all here, and I just feel that the $9.00 per foot is a fair assessment. If you guys agree with the streets that we’re going to redo, then we’ll go forward with the project.”
Mayor Kidston continued, “The other thing that I’d like to see done as part of this process, and again if we were not in great financial shape, I wouldn’t recommend this, but the village hall parking lot I think needs resurfaced.”
“The Fire Department needs resurfaced. They need additional parking at the rear of the Fire Department, so that’s part of this project as well.”
The estimate from Gerken on the street project is $241,855.
The $9.00 linear foot assessment would stay the same, regardless if the cost should prove higher or lower than the estimate. “We’ve got the money to do it,” Kidston said.
“If people put it on their taxes, then that money dribbles into us over a 20-year period. I can tell you from experience, at least half the people will just come in and write a check, and they won’t put it on their taxes.”
“These are all curbed streets that we’re talking about,” Fiser added. “It is a regrind, and then a repave, so that it will be ground and the level will stay level with the curb.”
Council unanimously agreed to the Mayor’s request to move forward on the project.
Mayor Kidston digressed temporarily into another current subject on the national stage. “I want to assure all the little citizens of Pioneer and all the families of Pioneer that Speedy Gonzales, Dr. Seuss, and Green Eggs and Ham are welcome in Pioneer, all the time, with open arms,” he said.
“I just want to make sure that the little ones are not seeing the news, and are scared that we’re going to take Dr. Seuss away; we’re not going to do that.”
Fiser gave an update on the T&W project. “They’re coming in tomorrow to do a what they call a ‘blow-off’ on the sanitary force main,” he said.
“They’ll do two of them, one on the east side of the river, and then one out at the lagoons. If everything goes off right on that, which they anticipate it will, that line will be online for use on Wednesday.”
“Another thing…they’re also going to come back, if the weather holds, and start grading, cleaning up piles and stuff like that. They were here today actually, so hopefully we’ll get this thing wrapped up in the next month or so.”
On the subject of the annual large trash day, Council agreed to Friday April 23, 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and Saturday April 24, 7:30 a.m. to noon. “That’s what works for ARS, and works for us,” Fiser said.
“We purchased our flags for the streets and the cemetery,” Fiser reported. “This year again, the Legion (Post #307) donated the cost of the flags, which came to $1,300. They were bought and paid for by the Legion, which is the second year in a row they’ve done that.”
With the recent purchase of a new pickup, the village normally auctions off the oldest one in the fleet. “This year,” Fiser said, “…the school has been aware of us wanting to sell it, and have made an offer of $6,000 for the pickup, which is a 2006 Chevy pickup with snowplow. It is old our oldest snowplow.”
“It’s fine, but we got a new one coming with the truck we purchased. Retail on it for good shape…was around $7,000. We think that’s probably a fair deal for both of us.”
Fiser added that there are usually costs of $300 to $500 associated with an auction. Council agreed to accept the offer from the school for the agreed upon price of $6,000.
Village Fire Chief Denny Fackler reported that he has submitted a request for a purchase order for MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) radios in the amount of $52,000. Of that amount, $50,000 is to be covered by grant funding.
In other actions, Council suspended the rules of reading and adopted Resolution 104-2021, approving the Solid Waste Management Plan Update for the Joint Solid Waste Management District of Defiance, Fulton, Paulding and Williams Counties.
Council also agreed to push the upcoming April 12 Council meeting date back a day to April 13 to allow for annexation legislation to be added to the agenda.
Council later retired into executive session to discuss potential property acquisition and disposition with public utilities consultant John Courtney of Courtney and Associates. No action was anticipated upon return to open session.
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com